High Court stays govt decision to hike nurses’ salary

Trivandrum: The Kerala High Court stayed the release of the final notification on fixing the minimum wages of nurses.

The nurses association had called off a strike announced for March 6 in view of the government order that was supposed to come on March 31.

The state government had earlier decided to release it by March 2018.

A petition was earlier filed by private hospital managements requesting not to release it as per the schedule.

But acting on a petition filed by hospital management, the high court prevented the nurse associations from going for a strike. As the court’s order came against the strike, the nurse association decided to change the form of protest and they planned to take mass Leave from duty.

Later, the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan intervened and assured them that the final notification would be released on March 31, this year.

In November 2017, the government had fixed the minimum wages as Rs 20,000.

A committee appointed by the Supreme Court had concluded that the private sector nurses must be paid a minimum salary of Rs 20,000.

The nurses association had called off a strike announced for March 6 in view of the government order that was supposed to come on March 31.